Love is Only Human
by DigiTails
Summary: School starts, everyone is in high school. In such a new environment for them all, many problems brew. But when everything boils away, it can only be realized that love is only human. Tyson & Hillary, Max & Mariam; HINTED: Rei & Salima, Kai & OC, OC & OC
1. So It Begins

When this takes place 

A few weeks after this story's prequel, A Year to Remember Me By

Heights and ages at the end of this story 

Kai Hiwatari- 18, 5' 6"

Rei Kon- 18, 5' 5"

Tyson Granger- 17, 5' 4"

Max Tate- 17½, 5' 6"

Kenny- 16, 5' 3"

Hillary Tatibana- 17, 5' 4"

Salima- 18, 5' 5"

Mariam- 17, 5' 6"

Mariah- 18, 5' 4"

Hitoshi Granger- 19, 6' 0"

_**Now for the original characters**_

Lily Hirotome- 18, 5' 6½"

Leo Hirotome- 9, 4' 8"

Lea Saikoiyo Hiwatari- 18, 5'5"

Molly Haikomo- 17½, 5' 5½"

Mark Haikomo- 17½, 5' 6"

Daisy Sanchez- 16, 5' 3"

_**Just so you won't get confused later...**_

"blah blah blah"- people saying stuff out loud

"_blah blah blah_"- people thinking stuff

'_blah blah blah_'- telepathic messages from bit beasts

_Blah blah blah­_- Narrator's notes, flashbacks, etcetera

!-Blah blah blah-! Beginning and end to chapters

**_Disclaimers- _**This applies for the rest of the story. I don't own Beyblade. I never owned beyblade, still don't, and never will. I do however, own my OCs and as far as I know, Takao Aoki owns Beyblade, for that's the name on the manga!

!-Chapter One-! So it Begins

It was a bright sunny day. The birds chirped merrily in their branches at the morning sun.

That's not right 

It was morning, but it was still dark enough outside to look like night. It was a gloomy day, rain pelt the streets on a dark spring morning.

_That doesn't work either..._

It was a typical spring morning. The sun was rising slowly in the sky. The clouds still tainted with the bright colors of sunrise. It was the middle of April in Japan. The partially blue sky littered with clouds, their morning colors fading away to white.

It was a deeply calm morning, about six in the morning. Some were already up, getting ready for the day. In a mansion, on the outskirts of the city this particular story takes place in, several teens were preparing for their first day of school.

Down a flight of stairs in the mansion flew a female bearing in her late teens. Long gold brown tresses flew in her wake consider the speed she was going at. She wore a blue uniform belonging to the senior high she was attending. This would be her first year attending there, and her last since she was graduating that year.

The girl ran into the nearby kitchen, spotting yet another girl about her age. She was wearing the same uniform they would be attending the same school. Her lengthy purple hair was kept in a thick braid. She was sitting in a chair balanced on its back legs, back of the chair resting against one of the brightly hued walls. Her arms were crossed and eyes closed.

A burgundy eye opened lazily to stare at the girl with brown hair.

"Lily, next time you hurdle down the stairs, don't jump at the bottom, I was trying to rest."

The girl, known to be Lily, grabbed the back of a nearby chair and spun it to the side and sat down, resting an arm over the back of the chair.

"Sorry, Lea. I happened to wake up energetic this morning." She waved her other arm in a graceful gesture.

"Hn." The fore legs of the chair the purple haired lass was sitting in slammed to the ground as she stood up.

Lily stood up as well, instantly more serious, "So, how well do you think we'll be able to pull our usual prank at the end of the year?"

"It depends on Aru's security. It won't work if it's worse then last year."

"True. But we do have a full two hundred and forty days before then. Should we get cooking?"

"I suppose so."

The oddest thing about their conversation, besides the matter discussed, was that they constantly were switching languages. They had started in Japanese, gone through English and Russian before ending in Japanese again.

In short order there were several wooden boxes stacked on the table. They were all nearly identical, finished maple in an oval shape. The only difference was the brass plates on the side with names written in kanji engraved on the side.

Into the kitchen came a shorter girl. She had tea shaded skin and large brown eyes. Her black tresses were kept in a ponytail in the middle of her head, a thick braid following after the brown hair tie. She adjusted the orange striped cuffs around her wrists as she finished buttoning her blue jacket. Her uniform was the same as the other two.

"Something smells good. What do we have for breakfast?"

Lily looked over at the petite girl of Hispanic and Chinese descent, "Oh, Daisy. Good morning." Both girls had been speaking Spanish.

Two more teenagers walked into the kitchen. They appeared to be related, if not twins. Both had blonde hair and extremely blue eyes that looked violet. One was a girl, her yellow tresses being wavy. The other was male, had one earring and his hair was abnormally strait and worn in a thin pony tail at the nape of his neck with bangs in his face. They too wore the uniform of Aru high school.

"Shouldn't we be trying to speak Japanese instead of going back and forth between languages?" The blonde girl asked, speaking Japanese.

Daisy looked over at the two twins, "Molly-san, Mark-san, ohayougozaimasu." She spoke, instantly switching her dialect of choice to Japanese.

"I think we're all proficient in Japanese, Molly." The purple haired girl said as she dropped a stack of plates on the table. Lily put chopsticks next to the plates.

"And Daisy, our breakfast is rice and sausages."

"Can't make a traditional Japanese breakfast?"

"Iie."

They all ate some of the prepared food and drank some random drink from the refrigerator. They then grabbed the maple bento box with their name on it and walked out of the kitchen after putting their dishes in the sink and wrapping their bento box in a cloth of their favorite color. On a table next to the front door were several carrying cases. The majority of them were Aru generic cases, although there were a few odd colored ones. They took their own bags and put on their shoes that were resting on the brick foyer.

Walking to their senior high as one large group they continued talking, occasionally making outbursts in other languages or just switching when they got bored of a language. Lea, Lily, and Mark were the quietest out of all of them, only speaking when they felt it necessary,

Soon enough they arrived at Aru. It was a fairly large building. In it there were three gyms and over one hundred fifty classrooms. The whole school was surrounded by a cement wall with trees and bushes all over the edges and in the eight class courtyards, and four general court yards.

"Woah, that's a huge school."

Molly snickered at her brother, "Its just your average Japanese high school."

The group walked into the school taking in their surrounds, Lily, Lea, Molly and Mark found the listings for the senpai homeroom assignments and Daisy found the kohai listings.

As Lily stared down the list she finished shoving her foot into the brown female school slipper.

"Lea, looks like you, me, and Mark are in the same homeroom. And Molly's by herself."

Molly looked down her homeroom listing. "Yes, looks like it." Then she noticed some other names on her homeroom listing, "_Maybe I'm not as alone as I thought."_

Smiling, Molly looked at the rest of her team. "Later!" She shouted over her shoulder as she ran off.

The calmer Mark, Lily, and Lea decided to walk off quietly to their homeroom. Lea sat down at a desk in the room. Mark stood off to the side. Lily stood near a window and looked outside at one of the senpai class courtyards.

Very much elsewhere at seven in the morning, about the time the group was heading out of the mansion, life was waking up at a small dojo on the outskirts of the town. The first two awake were an old man in charge of the dojo and a male teen. Quickly the boy dressed in a dusk blue high school uniform. He felt extremely uncomfortable in the uniform. He narrowed his red eyes as he looked down at the clothing.

"_I really hate uniforms._"

Growling slightly, he brushed slate bangs out of his face whilst mussing the navy strands at the back of his head. A few moments later, a boy wearing the same uniform walked out. Long black bangs feel to the side of his face, framing it nicely. His golden eyes gave away the fact that he was a morning person.

"Good morning, Kai." The black haired boy addressed the other.

"Rei." Kai glanced over at the point-eared boy. While Kai had been awake for a while longer then Rei, and was equally awake, he wasn't much of a morning person, well it was more like he wasn't much of a people person.

Kai walked over to the kitchen area in the dojo. Rei followed with a lack of anything else to do. His long black hair kept in white banding that started at the base of his neck and trailed down past his knees. A small tuft of black peeped out from the end of the banding.

In the dining room there was already some food waiting out on the table. In a small pot next to the head of the table was white rice. There were glasses on the table with some juice in them. Kai picked up a bowl, opened the pot and scooped some rice into the bowl. He covered the pot again and kneeled in front of a setting. He finished his food quickly. Rei had stopped following Kai and walked over to a pond.

When Kai was about to leave an old man with gray hair kept in a whip like ponytail walked in. His navy hakama fell loosely around his legs and made a faint swishing sound as he walked. He tightly grasped a wooden training sword.

"Yo, Kai. Where are you going, dawg?"

"School." Was his terse reply.

"Well, don't forget your lunch, homie. Its over in the corner."

Kai picked up an oval finished maple bento box with a brass plate and walked out. He walked along the path to the school and eventually stalked to the side of the road, coming into a small ravine with a tiny stream in the middle. He took a metallic blue blade out of his pocket and put it on a small launcher.

After a few minutes he put the blade back in his pocket and continued walking to the Aru school. Entering the building her got his shoe locked assignment, took off the black dress shoes and replaced them with the black boys' slippers. Finding the senpai senior homeroom assignment, he walked to his homeroom.

He walked into his homeroom and walked to the windows, standing a few feet away from a girl already standing there.

"Ah, Kai, you're going to Aru as well?" She turned her head slightly to pin her silver eyes on him.

Know your Japanese 

San – honorific. Its equivalent in English is "Mr." "Ms." "Mrs." Etc. Although its used more often then its English equivalent.

Ohayougozaimasu- good morning

Senpai- senior

Kohai- junior


	2. Old Friends Reunite

!-Chapter Two-! Old Friends reunite

"Lily, what are you doing here?"

A fond smirk found its way to her face, "I'd think it would be obvious. Not only by my statement, but uniform as well. I'm going to Aru, same as you." His red-eyed glare spoke his thoughts well enough, "If you meant 'What am I doing at Aru?' It was Mr. Dickenson's idea that I go here. And your sister as well."

"Lea's here too?"

Lea brushed purple bangs out of her eyes, wand walked over to Kai, burgundy oculars glinting as she stood behind him, "Yes I am, brother. Didn't you notice."

Kai nearly jumped, but caught himself, although his eyes widened. Returning his eyes to normal, he didn't even look back to address his siblind. "Hmph, should I have?"

"Nice to see you too," Her voice held a tone of dry sarcasm as she went to take her seat.

Over where he was standing, Mark nearly felt envious of Kai, until he heard how he had been addressed. Laughing in his head, Mark had to admit that the two relatives did look similar and wondered how he couldn't have noticed earlier. The bell for homeroom ran. Students ran in at the last minute and took their seats.

As the bell finished ringing, a student ran in. He stood just insde the door as he pulled a cap off his head. Surprisingly enough, his messy hair didn't become any messier. Over in the far side of the room mahogany eyes alighted on the boy. Another pair of brown eyes and a pair of eyes covered by length brown bangs fell on him.

"Whew. Just made it." He sighed and took a seat next to a girl with shoulder length brown hair that bobbed out.

She scolded him under her breath across the aisle, "Tyson! Why are you so late? Max's been here for a while."

"Sorry, Hils, I slept in."

Daisy released Tyson, who was sitting in front of her, from her gaze, to look over at Max, how had indeed been in the school for over half an hour. Their homeroom teacher sat at her desk, pinning Tyson and Hillary, who were having an argument under their breath and glowering at each other, with a black eyed gaze. They eventually felt the gaze and looked over at her.

"Ms. Tatibana, Mr. Granger, do you have something you want to share with the class?"

They both looked at the other before looking back at their teacher, "No."

"Good. Next time you might allow me to take attendance with out distractions."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good." The teacher stared down at the list of students in her hand.

The paper fell to the desk in the third senpai homeroom as the homeroom teacher left it on his desk. The announcement system flashed on, welcoming the students, announcing the clubs meeting that week and then shut off.

The students in the room broke out into conversation. Molly turned to look back at Rei, who was sitting behind her, "Hi, Rei. How's the rest of your team."

"Fine. They're all in this school."

"How funny, same here." Molly, unlike Lily, was not aware that Mr. Dickinson had planned this, and dismissed it as a coincidence.

"That's nice," Rei was slightly distracted as he looked out the window.

The second homeroom was filled with people like Rei, honey-shaded orbs, pointy ears, and longer and sharper then normal canines. One of them was a girl with overly pink hair. Sitting next to her was a normal looking girl, although she had paler skin, relatively short, wild orange hair kept in a low ponytail. Black met with gold.

"Salima," the pink haired one addressed the red head, "I didn't know you were here."

"Same here, Mariah," Salima said, also whispering, "I thought you lived in China."

"Yeah, we do. But Mr. Dickinson wanted us over here, according to Lee."

"Same."

Later in the day, the first senpai homeroom was going to their recess and passed the second kohai room. Lily's silver eyes were tainted turquoise as she heard faint muttering behind her about the Mexican teenager in the room. However, Lea held nothing back, glowering at the offending girls, shutting them up.

Kai, Lily, Lea, and Mark sat in a corner, occasionally breaking the mutually agreed upon silence with comments about idiots or short blurbs of conversation.

In his class Tyson was soundly asleep. The teacher up front had introduced himself as their math teacher. He would be teaching them algebra II. He was in the middle of explaining his particular deviation on normal school policies. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose when he noticed Tyson quietly snoozing away, "_That's the world champion? How sad._"

"Mr. Granger."

Hillary desperately reached across to poke Tyson in the arm. They boy started and looked up at the teacher, "What?"

"Good to see you're awake."

"I wasn't asleep. I was just...resting my eyes."

The entire class stared at Tyson, a few laughing at him, "Well, I would prefer it if you paid better attention."

"Yes, sir!" And everyone in the room wondered how Tyson had managed to sneak into a school like Aru.

By fifth period it was lunch time for the whole school. Not being able to stand the other students in their homeroom, Kai, Lily, Lea and Mark had gone down to one of the senior courtyards. Sitting at one of the tables under a cheery tree they ate in silence. It was overgrown with weeds, no one had probably been here for a long while.

Tyson, Hillary, Max, Kenny, and Daisy were also heading to a courtyard to eat, but one of the Kohai. The group of five juniors passed by the decrepit senior courtyard.

"Hey, guys!" Tyson called out when he spotted four of his friends. He ran into the courtyard when they didn't look up at him.

"Tyson! Get back here!"

"Ah! Tyson!

"Idiot."

Actually, out of the four left, Max was the only silent one.

"Tyson, this is a senior courtyard, junior's aren't allowed." Lily looked up at the world champion, a veritable coldness wafting off of her. Tyson stopped running a few feet from the door, turned around and walked slowly backing into the school.

When the five had disappeared and and the four in the courtyard had finished eating, Lily stood up.

"Still fifteen minutes left. Anyone up for a match?" In response three tops were pulled out of various pockets. "Guys versus girls?" Lily asked, pulling out a snow driven blade. The three nodded and Lily got the distinct feeling of talking to several walls.

They all walked over to a bare patch of ground. They put blade on their respective launchers and called out in unison, "Let it rip!"

In mid-air blue crashed with blue and white collided with dark gray. All four blads survived the mid-air collision. They landed on the ground and wobbled slightly before straightening out. One of the metallic blue blades, one with a picture of a blue bear superimposed upon it, grouped with the white blade, the other metallic blue spinning top grouped with the other one.

Kai grumbled in his head, he knew next to nothing about Mark's style, so how had he gotten himself into this?

In a nearly completely abandoned junior courtyard Tyson complained as he sat down.

"Man, Lily was so mean. Come on, why'd she have to be so cold?"

Daisy pulled her chopsticks apart, "She was right though, if a teacher caught you in there, you would have gotten into trouble."

Unfortunately, Tyson wasn't listening, he was stuffing his face with the contents of his bento box; he hadn't even bother to pull his chopsticks apart.

In the second senior courtyard, there were a few people. It was well kept, unlike the third, but fairly abandoned, unlike the first. Rei and Molly walked into the courtyard. The first person Rei spotted was Salima. He eventually took his amber-shaded eyes off the girl and looked over at the rest of the people, who were sitting at another table altogether.

"Salima!" Molly cried out, smiling and raising an arm. She walked over to Salima and sat down. Rei walked over to the other table. The people there were the ones with those same oddly colored eyes.

"Hey, guys."

A boy looked up, black bangs in his face, but out of his eyes, "Sorry, Rei, White Tiger members only." Rei stared at him, thus earning a fanged smile, "Just kidding. Sit down if you want." Rei sat in the empty seat.

"So, why are you all here? Aren't you supposed to be back in China by now?"

"It was Mr. Dickinson's idea that we attend this school." Mariah said happily, she was happy to see the last person in her "family".

"Oh, do you know what other teams are here?"

A boy that looked almost too young to be a senior brushed green hair out of his eyes, "I think the Saint Shieilds, Psykicks and BeyGirls."

"Kevin, what are you doing here?"

"Same as them..." Then he realized what Rei was really asking, "Oh, I just made the cut off, a day later and I'd be a junior."

**Know Your Japanese Culture**

Some extra notes, since Japan is different then America, so the school system is different.

The typical Japanese high school hours run from 8:30 to like sunset (dunno exact time). Most students walk or take public transport, they don't drive cars, even the seniors. Next off, their school year starts in the Spring and is 240 days long, typically, 40 days more then we do in America. Most of these are culture days, or spent preparing for culture days and so on and so forth. They also go to school on Saturdays for half a day, though the number of required Saturdays for each month has gone down.

The curriculum in Japan is the same throughout a grade, everyone is at the same level in a school, or district, there's none of this special ed and honors and AP stuff in Japan. I dunno if they learn at the honors level in America, or the normal level, so I go with normal, if you know otherwise, tell me.

Students of Japan normally bring a lunch with them, occasionally the school will give out lunches, but generally students have to bring their lunches from home. Instead of lunch boxes they have bento boxes. I'm not sure, but I think students can leave the building for lunch and come back for the next period. I'm not sure because this is what I gather from an anime I watch, but I'm not to sure if it was a Saturday or normal weekday.

Each school has a different and unique uniform, so that people from different schools can be told apart from one another and so that people will know which school a person goes to. Oh, and normally Japanese highschoolers dun date during school (or maybe in general, again, I'm not sure)

Whoo! This is all I need to explain now.

!-Author's Note-!

).o I thought I had updated this with chapter two, apologies. This has been done for months. I really though I updated it.

Mhm. Sorry for you avid fans of this series for taking so blasted long between the updates. The inspiration for another five stories have nipped me in the arse and won' let me write out this story except for like a sentence a day, if even that. So, yeah. .o I can try to force myself to haul the inspiration for this story back, but don' be surprised if it takes a while. When I get to the action in like five or six chapters and stop with the opening patter we should be good to go.

. also, when I get to an idea where to go for the next several chapters, I should be able to update biweekly, every Friday (for me) some time, maybe sometimes weekly. Yay. Oh, if you have a suggestion for extra stuff I should do (you know, t'add some meat to the plot to make it all, like, realistic and not just plot, plot, plot, give 'em to me. It would help with the speed of updates)


	3. A Different Kind of Day

!-Chapter Three-! A different kind of day

Lily caught her white blade in her hand while the others put theirs into their pockets. Wrapping their bent boxes nearly in cloth they walked out of the courtyard. The teacher that had been watching the blocked the doorway.

"You four, stop." Lily sopped telling Kai and Mark that it would be in their best interests to learn teamwork as they looked up at him as a group, with the same annoyed "what?" expression.

"You are seniors. You should realize that sports like that are forbidden on school grounds."

"It didn't say we couldn't blade in the courtyards, per say, just the building itself." Lily retorted smartly, perhaps too much so.

"Well you can't," the teacher snapped at them, "If you ever pull them out again so much as a fraction of an inch they will be confiscated until year end and you'll get a detention."

"Yes, sir." The four said in unison. The teacher left so that they could go back to class on time. A minute later Tyson, Hillary, Max, and Daisy ran past the courtyard. Hillary was yelling at Tyson for making them most likely late for sixth period.

"_Drats, I guess they left already._" Tyson though, chagrined, now he couldn't stop his deserved verbal tounge-lashing short. Although it was getting a little long for the offense. They happened to run in just as the bell rung for class to begin. With a sigh of relief Tyson took his seat. Hillary sat next to him, irked at the world champion, Daisy sat unaffected behind him, and Max sat far away silently. The American blonde looked distraught about something.

During the middle of the period, the front doors to the school opened. In walked three people, two guys and one girl. The girl's blue hair, kept in a long thin high ponytail, trailed behind her, waving from side to side as she walked. A teacher in front of them escorted them to the main office. A few minutes later, the three walked out of the office. The youngest boy, one with green hair, ran down to a freshman homeroom. The girl walked passively down to the junior wing, the second homeroom. The remaining boy walked down to the third senior homeroom.

He walked in, handed the teacher in charge the pass he had been given a took the only empty seat next to Rei, "Hi. How are the bit beasts?"

"They're fine. Is the rest of your team here as well?"

"Yes they are, except for Dunga, he's too old."

"Boys!" the teacher shouted, "I understand that you can't wait to talk, but either go outside or wait until the end of class." A few students laughed, much to Rei and Ozuma's chagrin.

By the time sunset came, most of the students were more then ready for the end of the day. All the separate teams met just outside of the front gates to regroup. Kai inwardly groaned as he opened his eyes from his position leaning against the fence to spot Tyson coming up, "_Couldn't he have to stay after?_"

Max, uncharacteristically, sighed rather gloomily and looked around. The he brightened when his light blue eyes spotted the girl that had come in late, standing next to her was the young boy with green hair, "Mariam! Joseph! Its great to see you two!" He ran over to talk with them.

"That's more cheerful then he's been lately. I don't understand."

"You don't? Here's a hint, he was saying Joseph to be polite; he really meant Mariam."

"Oh, I get it not." There was a sly tone to Tyson's voice, somehow making Molly regret explain Max's state of mind to Tyson.

Kai looked up as the White Tigers came out of the building with Rei and Ozuma coming along after.

"What took you so long?" A younger boy with brown hair that blocked his eyes asked Rei.

"A teacher wanted to talk to us, Chief." Rei said, shrugging.

"In trouble on the first day? That's pretty bad, Rei." Said the boy that had joked with him earlier.

"I wasn't in trouble, Lee."

"I know, I was just playing around. Can't you take a joke?"

"Of course."

"Hey let's get going." Daisy said, noticing that Lily was slowly and deliberately leaving along with Lea. The both had grown bored with the inconsequential conversation.

"Yeah, I'm starving" Tyson nodded, agreeing with the notion.

"Tyson, you'd be starving even if you had just eaten out a buffet," Max had finally re joined the group along with Mariam and her brother.

Tyson was about to retaliate against Max's comment, however, a kid wearing a black school uniform ran up to the group and over to Lily, effectively cutting him off short, "Are you Lily Hirotome?"

"Hm?" She looked over at him questioningly, "What about it?"

"I was asked to give this to you." He held out a slip of folded paper. She took it from him.

"Thanks." The boy left as soon as his job was completed however, and didn't hear the statement. Lily shrugged it off and held the paper between the tips of her index and middle fingers. She twisted her wrist several times before shrugging and pocketing it. "Hey, I have to pick up my little brother. I'll see you all tomorrow."

Later that evening Lily lie back in her bed. She picked up a piece of folded paper from the desk next to her bed. She stared blankly at it for a moment, turned down her lamp's light and opened it. Scrawled neatly on the lone leaf of white in the black ink of a fountain pen were two lines.

**Higara Park.**

**12:00 P.M. April 19, 2001**

Lily checked her clock for the date, it read **We-18-01**, tomorrow was a school day. She groaned inwardly. She slumped downward, this didn't bode well. She didn't want to play hooky on her second day of school. She looked the paper over, flipping it several times, looking for a hidden message.

Kai pressed his 'blade onto his launcher. He shook slate bangs out of his silver eyes. He clenched his teeth and launched the metallic blue top. The 'blade whirred with the sound of a bench saw, landed on the ground with a small clattering sound as the parts settled to spin about on solid ground. Kai locked his gray oculars on a series of empty soda cans he had set up. They were heavily dented and cut through in several places. His Dranzer Gigs spun in tight circles for a few moments before spinning in one spot for a split second and spun at the cans. Each can was knocked over or sent flying. Kai was about to knock down the last can when something else did. His eyes darted about the area, sliding over the stone walls surrounding the dojo. There had been a breeze. Dranzer spun in lazy circles without a command.

"Who's there?" His only response was the night's still air.

He held up his hand, clad in a fingerless glove, to catch his top as he walked towards the mysteriously downed can. A metal square was stuck in the tin cylinder. When he was a foot away, the square beeped. Kai jumped backwards, away from it, as the beeping mechanism exploded. Kai landed on his back, being caught the edge of the bright ball of fire.

"Damn." He stood up, "Who did that?" He looked around the quite empty area angrily.

"Kai, come to the beach at 1:30 in the afternoon tomorrow." Kai narrowed his eyes into a hate filled expression in the direction of the voice. He was about to leap up and follow when several voices called out as people emptied out of the dojo. He stalled, a moment to late to take any action.

"Kai! What happened?"

"You all right, dawg?"

"What was that explosion?"

"What were you doing, Kai?"

Kai pocketed his top and looked over at his bleary-eyed pajama wearing teammates. Doubtlessly, the explosive in a can had woken them up.

He closed his eyes and walked coldly past them, "Its none of your concern."

Kai didn't know what this person had against him, but several people in Aru seemed to have a grudge against the BladeBreaker. There was a slight chance, more then slight, that it was one of his fellow students.

He toyed with the thought, then promptly tossed it out. None of his peers should have known where he was staying, that he was up, or have access to explosives. A moment later he reconsidered the idea, then put it down once more. What was more likely was that this was an alert to yet another dangerous adventure that would start by someone wanting to challenge the BladeBreakers.

He turned under the sheets of the make-shift bed in a spare training room. Thankfully, Tyson slept in his own room, saving everyone from his snores, and Kai slept by himself, so it was quiet. So when he fell asleep ten minutes later, he should have stayed asleep. Unfortunately, life didn't favor the oldest member of the BladeBreakers.

A well aimed rock snuck through a narrow opening high in one of the walls that protected the room for the outdoors. It clattered by his head, narrowly missing him. Red eyes snapped open and narrow at the rock. Quickly tuning into the outside, he heard someone moving around. Would he be given some measurement of peace already? He silently got up and went outside. Moving around as quietly as humanly possible, he moved to where the noise had come from.

There was what he was looking for. He caught movement in the shadows. The person that had nearly hit him with the rock. He quickly darted towards the assailant. The person was completely caught off guard. The rock thrower was quickly pinned to the ground.

"Hey, Kai. Nice to see you too."

Kai grumbled, and let the person up, and crossed his arms in vague irritation. It was only Lily. She stood up. "What are you doing here?" His voice was a harsh whisper.

"Simple, I couldn't sleep."

Kai stared, incredulous, "So you decided to wake me up."

"Not really. I was wondering why there was smoke coming from over here."

"And you couldn't wait until morning."

"It's a little late for a bonfire. Besides, those are illegal."

Kai knew she wanted him to tell her what had happened, but he decided to answer her with silence.

"What happened." More of a demand then a question.

"Explosion." He said it simply.

"Oh great." She rolled her eyes, making an exaggerated motion, "You were experimenting with explosives, or was that some new move?" More silence, she crossed her arms as well, "Some random crazed person?" A nod.

!-Author's Note-!

Yes, holy crap, Kai cursed. I just don't feel that with so many teenagers in this story that at least a few of them wouldn't curse. And Kai seems the most likely to swear every once in a while. Won't get too bad tho'...

Digi


	4. Mysterious Voices

Uggh, blocks are sooo much fun. Any who, without much further ado, chapter four.

!-Chapter Four-! Mysterious voices

Lily left shortly after that and Kai was finally able to not only fall asleep, but sleep the rest of the night through too. The next morning, preparations for school went on as normal with a few minor exceptions. Daisy looked around the kitchen looking for her team captain.

"Have, have any of you seen Lily?"

A young boy with dark red hair looked at the Chinese athlete, "Sis said something about needing to see someone about something important. Wasn't specific, but she said she'd be at school late."

Lea frown over in her quiet corner of the bright room, "That's unlike her, I wonder what's up."

"I dunno, but she looked worried a bit." He looked at the clock, "Oh, I gotta go. 'Bye!" The grade schooled jammed the last bit of toast into his mouth and swigged the last of his orange juice. He jumped down from his chair, running out of the house to get to school on time.

"We should probably go as well." They all agreed with Molly's statement and put Lily and her strange mannerisms out of mind as they walked to Aru School.

Over at the Granger dojo, it was a little loud for early in the morning, "Has anyone seen Kai?" Tyson was practically shouting.

"No, he was gone when we woke up. Now will you stop shouting?"

"But I wanted to ask him about what happened last night." The navy haired hot head groaned angrily and impatiently, "Where does he think he's going so early in the morning?"

"Tyson, calm down. You can ask him in school."

Rei's attempts to calm Tyson down her mostly in vain. Their only success was in the fact that Tyson stopped continuously shouting. Although that was boon, considering their ears were now save from Tyson's overwhelming irritation. If nothing else they wouldn't go deaf before hitting twenty.

Tyson doubled over as his stomach complained about a lack of food, "Oh man, I'm starving." With that he ran off to go grab some grub.

Rei sighed at his younger teammate's nearly insatiable appetite. However, both he and Max were relieved to be both out of the nearby vicinity and to have eaten already.

"Hey, Rei. Want to leave without Tyson? I don't want to be around when he finds out Kai;s not going to school today."

"Yea, true. Let's go."

Earlier that morning the two had come across Kai as he was about to leave the dojo, wearing his more normal dark clothes instead of the school uniform the two of them were clad in.

"Hey, Kai. What's up?"

The slate-haired teenager paused in his path, pocketing something that looked oddly like a beyblade. He didn't even look at the two. After a few moments of careful pondering he decided to answer them, "Nothing."

"Where are you going?"

Their only answer was silence, after a few steps Kai stopped again, "I'm not going to be in today."

Rei and Max walked past the dojo's small dining area, where Tyson could be heard saying "More" during the pause of someone rapidly using chopsticks to shovel foot out of a porcelain bowl that came ever five seconds. Boxed lunches already in hand they put on their shoes and began walking to school.

Kai was deep in the forest. Normally, he wouldn't skip a day of school like that, but this was a special case. Hopefully, it wouldn't come up all that often. He continuously launched his beyblade, to up the much abused soda cans and then downed them with the powerful top. Then he reset them and repeated the process over and over again.

His arms grew tired within the hour, hands becoming sort and stiff. Kai continued, however, this was an excellent form of stress relief. And her was notably annoyed. First there was the fact that his training and practice were interrupted the previous night by an explosive and then this. He had to listen to some stranger when he had better things to do then wait around all day. At least he could get in several hours of practice in the meantime.

All the while in a building on the outskirts of the town a swarthy young man walked into a darkened dusty room. The thick, scarlet, velvet curtains blocked out all forms of light. It was the same person that had given Lily the note the other day.

"Sir, bother of them did not check into school today. Shall we proceed?"

A mysterious figure was seated in a chair with its back to the door. The person was obviously leaning into the back of his armchair, considering the back of the chair was resting against the large oaken desk in the center of the room.

"No...actually...go straight to the third phase."

Confusion found its way into the young man's face, "Sir? Yes, sir!" He turned on his heel and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

"Soon, Kai. You will be under my wing again, soon."

Lily walked into the park that she was supposed to go into fifteen minutes ahead of time. She looked around her and sighed. Higara park was huge. Where she was supposed to go exactly was a complete mystery to the brown-haired young woman. She decided to go over to the grounds of the park that had been made so that 'bladers could train themselves or have face-offs with one another without having to pay the high price of a more professional gym. Within ten minutes Lily had made it to the clearing. She looked around at the area, it was silent. No one was there. She checked her watch, five minutes left. She decided to wait out the rest of the time by sitting on the edge of one of the arenas.

Five minutes came and went, and then ten minutes passed. Lily tapped her foot impatiently as fifteen minutes drew near. She stood up, quite ready to leave, waving the note off as a hoax, an annoying one, but never the less a hoax. In fact, she was about to leave as something drew her attention back to the area. She turned around, and quirked an eyebrow in question at someone that had appeared through the other egress to the clearing.

His spiky, Mohawk, emerald green hair stood stiffly in the wind. He had wild looking blue eyes. He took a few steps forward, nearly strutting as he did so. "So you're Lily." His voice held an annoying drawl to it.

"And if I am?" She watched him not only calmly, but nearly coldly as well.

"My name's Zylo, ex-Fang Lily."

Lily didn't start at the comment, "And how would you have know that?" Her voice held a nearly dangerous tone. Zylo pulled out and showed her a rather nefarious looking beyblade.

"Beat me in a match and I'll tell you."

Lily shrugged, "Whatever." She pulled out the snow-driven beyblade that was practically her trademark. Both blades were placed onto a launcher and released upon the customary call of "Let it rip!" The match was over before the blades could hit the dish. The boy's blade flew out, hit a tree and fell to the ground. Lily's top landed into the dish and spun around almost innocently and unharmed.

The challenger just stared, the fact that he had lost so badly hadn't seemingly settled in quite yet. Lily crossed her arms and studied Zylo carefully, "Your word?"

"My employer."

"I supposed I won't find that out."

"No. Not from me at least, go to the beach to find out." And with that he was gone, along with the defeated beyblade.

Lily clicked her tounge in annoyance. She caught her top and pocketed it, along with the launcher. She crossed her arms and walked off.

At the beach, Kai watched the waves roll in with growing irritation. He was leaned against a wall with eyes narrowed. He didn't have a watch, so he had no way to know he was still five minutes early. Five minutes later, Kai heard someone coming up on the walkway above his head. He stood up, took a step from the concrete wall and looked at the presumed challenger or whatever he was waiting for. He mentally groaned when he saw who it was.

"Oh, Kai. Hey." Lily stopped when she spotted Kai. She jumped down the ten feet onto the sandy beach below a few feet in front of Kai, "So what's up?

"..."

Lily sighed in a "though as much" sort of fashion when the pair heard someone else coming to greet them.


	5. The Plot Thickens

Heya folks! My apologies for the long update, I just had to pull these stories out of the proverbial file cabinet of my mind. Now, without further ado, chapter five! Sorry it's on the short side.

!-Chapter Five-! The Plot Thickens

Tyson didn't take a lot of pleasure in eating his lunch, which was unusual for him. He also ate his food at a notably slower pace, although disturbingly fast. Within five minutes after starting to eat he set down his bento box.

"So, Tyson, what's bothering you?" Daisy was only about a quarter of the way done. She watched Tyson a little concerned.

"Kai didn't come to school today."

"Yeah, so?"

"Lily didn't either. Something's up. Look, Lily got that letter yesterday, we never found out what it said. There was an explosion last night while Kai was training. I though I heard someone talking to him. Now neither of them come to school today." He looked eagerly forwards to see if anyone was impressed by his findings.

"There was an explosion last night! Why didn't you tell us!" Hillary stopped eating her lunch to yell at Tyson.

"Sorry, Hillary, we were going to." Max too put down his chopsticks to join in the conversation.

Kenny was taking in the conversation thoughtfully, wishing that school rules allowed him to bring in his laptop. "If that's true something maybe happening right now. Ah! What if they're in trouble?"

"Relax, Chief. Whatever it is they can handle themselves. Though I wish Kai could have told us about what happened last night. Man" Tyson looked thoughtfully at the uneaten food around him and was sorely disappointed when the group sensed his thoughts and continued eating their food. He downed any worry, believing his own words.

Unfortunately for Tyson, the idea that if you believe hard enough in something and it will become true didn't quite work. Zylo grunted as he tried to haul Kai up the stairs to the dock overlooking the beach. Both Kai and Lily were unconscious. They had only been able to see him for a moment before he shot them with a general knock out drug; the affects had been almost instantaneous. There was a black van waiting for the two of them to be thrown in. Oddly enough, no one was around to alert the police.

After several minutes of struggling, Zylo was able to get Kai in. Then he moved Lily into the back of the van as well. He slammed the doors shut and locked them. He got in the driver's seat and pulled off the wig, proving him to be the young man from before. When he spoke that drawl was gone.

"Well, now that they're out I should continue. I only have twenty minutes before they wake." With that he pressed down on the gas petal and tried to make the van look inconspicuous as he joined the bustling traffic flow of downtown. After a short, but non-the-less maze-like series of turns he stopped the van in front of a building. He backed up to what appeared to be an open lading dock. A hired hand walked up to the doors in the back of the van and opened them. The driver flipped a switch in the front console and finished backing up, plum against the loading door.

A moment later the two newly made captives hit stone cold cement five feet below. With an ominous clanking sound the loading bay doors were closed and then locked with a creak. Kai stirred and was up a second later. He quickly stood and just as quickly took in his surroundings. He stood silently at the set of locked doors whose door framed bottomed out at his eye level. His entire right side throbbed for that was the side he had landed on. On the other side of the dark room was another door, though floor level this time. Almost right next to his feet was Lily who was still knocked out. Under his swift glance that was planned to go back to searching the room for a way out she stirred.

She stood as well and took a few steps backwards as her turquoise streaked eyes adjusted to the darkness surrounding them, pupils dilating. She too spotted both sets of doors. She swiftly walked over to the door on their level, making it that much easier to grab the handle and test. She reached out for the handle, but her hand froze in place an inch form the metallic surface. She could literally feel the air charged and pulsating with electrical energy. No way she was touching that without a good amount of insulator between her flesh and the handle.

Lily told Kai about the electrified handle while waving her hand over the rest of the metal surface of the door. She discovered to her dismay that the entire door was electrified. The high voltage could very well melt her blade if she tried to launch the snowy-white industrial top at the door.

Kai upon hearing about the door decided to test the door that was five feet up in the air. There weren't any handles on the inside. He raised a hand and found that the door wasn't electrified. He raised the other hand and pressed both palms against one of the doors. It gave for a moment before the bar lock on the other side hindered any more movement. Kai glared in annoyance and lowered his hands. After a few moments of silence after conferring with each other about their surroundings bright lights glared in from the rafters above their heads. Both captains were blinded momentarily.

In their homeroom at Aru, the jaws of worry clenched tightly about Lea's inner thoughts. If what Leo had said earlier that day before they went to school was true, shouldn't Lily be back by now? What had happened to her brother, too? Normally, she wouldn't worry about either of them, however, not leaving word with her wasn't exactly normal for Lily. The behavior was odd, she hadn't been able to find a note in anything of hers at all. She copied down notes from the board. Whatever was going on, the both of them would need a very good explanation for their absence.

Well, that was when they got back from whatever they were doing, if they ever returned. She shook the thought out of her head. More than anything, those two were tough and Lily probably thought it wouldn't be too much trouble, which was why she didn't leave a note for her. It was probably nothing. Although she was going to be pissed off at them for a while for this. She didn't like to be left without word, ever.

At the warehouse storage room which had been modified just for this occasion, both teens looked around the room as their eyes adjusted to the brightness. It was the same as it was in the dark, but now they could see a vent that had been hidden in the gloom. A speaker crackled to life, static covered the voice, barely making it understandable.

"Good afternoon. Sorry for inconveniencing you wit this, but I'm sure you'll be able to understand."

"Not really, idiot." Lily muttered angrily under her breath.

"We want to test the captains of the world's two most powerful teams. If you'll go through that door over there," The door that had been found to be previously electrified opened, swinging innocently inwards to hand on its hinges, "you'll find a series of simple obstacles, if you make it though, you can go."

The speaker snapped off with a loud static click. Lily rubbed her ears what Kai ignored it.

"I guess there isn't much of a choice here."

"No."

"Sneaky underhanded idiots. I don't think this is going to be as easy as they make it sound..."

There was the sound of rushing water and the floor got damp, very dame and very quickly. Lily and Kai both looked at the door. The water had started to form a small coating on the floor. If it continued to get wet at this rate, soon it would reach the bottom of the door, which might still be electrocuted. They would find out if it was rather shockingly if it was if they hung around of course. There was a three-foot high barricade behind the door to give them time to get away from this small obstacle.

Both ran towards the door, feet splashing in a centimeter of water. The rubber soles of their shoes would protect them until the water went above that. Kai clambered up first since he was the first there. He was followed closely by Lily. When both were reasonably secure, Lily waved a dry hand in front of the door, finding their assumptions to be accurate.

They both looked back into the room and made sure they had blades and launchers before looking around for a way to continue. It was a matter of time until the water leaped over the barricade. There was a very long and ominous looking hallway just ahead of them. Thinking the same thing they readied their beyblades.

Lily held her ripcord loosely by the ring on her index finger. Still, it would take less then a second to fire the blade. Kai held the device with both hands, readied to fire in an instant.

A cautious booted step was taken into the hallway. Two sets of silver-stained eyes watched the walls carefully. Their ears were open to any repercussions to their steady forward movement up the steep hallway. The only noise was the steady beat of their steps.

There was a creka behind him. Lily took a quick furtive glance behind herself. The corner of her mouth twitches and she looked forward again, trying to walk casually. Kai gave her a quiet questioning look. She barely opened her mouth to tell him the source of the creak.

"There's a wall behind us, it seems to be moving...there are spikes too."

"I see..." Kai stopped, looked back and continued, looking forwards. When he had looked back it had accelerated. He tried to look through the dim lighting for an exit from the wide hallway. The exit was found manifested in an open doorway. Both teens walked into the doorways and watched the apparatus that had been following them slide almost like a ghost past the opening.

Both relaxed marginally, happy and relieved that that thing was gone. In a few moments they wished they were being chased again.

Back at Aru the bell for Lea's elective had rung and she walked out of the homeroom for only the third time that day. When she took her seat next to Mark she conveyed the fact that she was worried about both Kai and Lily to him.

"Ah, they'll be cool, Lea. You trust them for a reason."

"Yeah, true." Somehow, she didn't believe that. "_After this day is over and if they still aren't back I'll tell Mr. D and look for them myself._"


	6. Sweet Escape

I think this is gonna be the shortest chapter and story I've ever written. No this isn't the last chapter, but it is the shortest.

!-Chapter Six-! Sweet Escape

Lily and Kai looked around at their next task in this weird obstacle course. The room was short, ten feet in front of them was another wall, no door in sight. The doorway behind them was closed by a metal panel that slid in from the wall. There was a faint whirring sound as the door locked. The wall they were facing was covered in slots, the right size for a beyblade to be shot out of it. The air was filled with the maniacal hum of electronics and things, probably the industrial tops themselves, spinning.

If either of them had blinked, they would have missed it. All of the hundred or so slots spat out a beyblade that was going slightly slower then a gunshot. Both teens had jumped forwards and ducked under the lowest shooting point before it had happened, when the ominous feeling in the air had peaked. Thus they were able to dodge all the heavy duty spinning tops. They launched their own, in a minute all the enemy tops were down.

"Seems they don't really want us to escape..." Lily paused thoughtfully, "or they were expecting us to do that."

The door opened. It seemed to reveal the empty hallway reluctantly. Both spent an excess moment to pick up their tops and reload the launchers.

They ran out of the room and back into the hallway. During their absence, the water had started to crawl up the hallway; they could see the glimmer of the water halfway down the hallway. The stopped, nodded and ran up the steep slope looking for any more exits. The first they found was after a ninety-degree twist that had narrowed the hallway down considerably. It was the only way to continue so they stepped almost casually into the room that followed. The doorway closed behind them.

They looked around the room, there was one way out and a large device in the center of the room. Once the door behind them locked the device pulsed menacingly. The air in the room heated up to nearly ninety degrees Fahrenheit. It got extremely uncomfortable in that room extremely quickly

Lily grumbled at the device and launched her blade. It landed in front of the device. "Dalila, quick wing attack and kill that thing."

A light shone from the white beyblade and attacked the machine. When the light receded, the machine was a twisted piece metal that was smoldering. The room was still warm as it began to cool down. Both doors opened. Lily froze as she reloaded her beyblade.

"Why didn't I think of that sooner? We could be out of here by now!"

"Oh well. Let's just go."

They ran forwards towards the door and noticed something, halfway across the next room there was a platform raised fifteen feet into the air. Lily stopped short seeing the new problem, "I can't jump that high."

Kai didn't respond but made leap onto the platform, barely clearing the edge and landing on top of it, "There's nothing up here except a generator." Kai was about to jump back down but then he noticed something. A wire that led from the generator into the wall. It seemed strange that it went into the floor when all the other wires went out the back wall.

"_Dranzer, what do you think that is?_"

The phoenix took a while before answering, '_That leads to the first room you were in. That is electrocuting the door and the water._'

"_I'm not asking how you knew that._" Kai cut off the mental communication and launched Dranzer. It took the blade nearly two minutes to cut the heavily insulated wire.

Down below Lily watched as the water crept into the room and flooded up an inch. She moved around in the water as it rose slowly.

"Uh...Kai?" She asked the other captain above her, who was too absorbed in getting the wire cut that he didn't hear her. "Crap, not good." Suddenly there was an explosion from above where Kai was.

The wire snapped away after it was cut in two and Kai outstretched his hand to catch his blade. Then the generator exploded.

"Kai?" Lily looked up at the platform cursing her inability to jump up there.

In answer to her question Kai leapt down onto the floor. The three inches of water splashed everywhere as he landed. "The water should be safe now."

"Good. Hey, the water stopped rising." She said looking at the water. She reached down a hand and touched it, it was the same as touching something and getting a static shock as the electricity was grounded due to some device somewhere in the building. They ran back through the rooms they had come through and looked down the hallway. The water might be safe, but the only rooms they knew of were totally filled with water. There was a problem with air now.

Not having much of a choice they proceeded back down the hallway and backtracked. They took a deep breath and dived under the water when they could no longer walk and opened their eyes, barely able to see a thing. They swam and looked into the room that had several beyblades drifting in the water. There was the murky outline of a door in the water now. They swam in and through the second door that had opened up. Soon they were at the surface of the water.

They let out the breath they had been holding and swam forwards as a set of lights turned on. The climbed drenched onto solid cement and stood, having a little trouble moving because of the water.

The pulled their blades out of their pockets and reloaded their launchers.

Meanwhile in a room very far from the warehouse someone watched their motions through many cameras embedded into the walls. Actually, it was two people. Zylo and the person in charge of everything. Zylo spoke up first.

"It seems they made it through faster then we expected, sir."

"Yes, so it would seem. I'm not surprised though. Kai is a bright boy and so is that girl. They are worth our time. Let's start making ready for their next visit to Russia."

"Yes, sir."

Kai and Lily found no further obstacles as they walked forward and found a narrow winding corridor. With little other choice they walked forwards through the corridor as it wound down and on and on for hours. As they sat down to take a break for a minute and rest Lily looked at her watch that hadn't been damaged by the water. "Damn, its nearly time for school to let out."

Kai nodded and stood, "Let's move."

"Yeah." They ran through the corridor trying to make it through before daylight ended. Soon they came towards more water and Lily groaned. "Not again."

Kai shrugged and they took a deep breath again and swam forwards, taking breaks for air as small patches in the ceiling came up for them to breath through. The corridor had stopped going down and had leveled out to make their path much easier.

In another hour they made it to a door. They paused squinted at it, pushed it and then Lily in impatience kicked it. The door flew open and revealed that they were now in the local lake. They kicked off of the bottom of the corridor and swam upwards breaking the surface of the lake just in time because they couldn't hold their breath any more. They tiredly swam towards the shore of the large lake and crawled up towards a nearby line of trees and collapsed against them.

The sun was beginning to set as Aru school let out. The group met at the front gates a few minutes later. Everyone looked around for Kai and Lily.

"Where are they?" Was basically what they all asked at once.

"Someone needs to tell Mr. D about this." Kenny said worriedly.

"We'll go." Lee offered and a minute later the team ran off. They weren't to concerned about Kai or Lily, but something had to be done. Rei joined them along with Salima.

"The rest of us should split up and look for them."

"Yeah."

They split into groups, Mark and Lea went off by themselves. Kenny, Hillary and Tyson walked around with Daisy trailing with them. She wished she could have gotten her laptop, it might have been able to make finding them a lot easier. Max, Mariam, Ozuma and Joseph were another group.

After a half hour's march Mark and Lea came by the lake and found the two, soaked to the core and lightly sleeping. Two sets of eyes snapped open as the searchers came within a few yards. Lily and Kai stood up, leaning against the tree.

Lily smiled weakly at her friend, "Heya, Lea. Yo, Mark."

"What happened? Why are you guys so wet?" Lea glared as she walked forwards, her concern faded into a vague sense of anger.

"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you."

"Try me." Lea said challengingly to her best friend.

"Okay." It took about ten minutes to explain what had happened to the two. "And then that's when you found us."

"That explains you, but why were you there Kai?"

"I was told to go the beach for something important." He kept it short and walked off.


	7. New Year's Investigation

Heya, once more I come with an update to this story. I'm gonna try and see if I can't get in the next few chapters by the time school starts for me again. But it's hard trying to keep them in character when I haven't watched the show in such a long time...so this is really going to be short.

Warning from here on out: Characters may or may not say things they normally don't say, do things they don't normally do, and behave in ways they don't normally behave.

!-Chapter Seven-! New Year's Investigation

Lily looked up at the sky through her frosty window as it clouded over in dark storm clouds. It had been probably eight months now since the last major incident when she had been knocked out and dropped into that obstacle course with Kai. It still bothered her that she didn't know a thing about that place or why she had been brought there.

She looked over the papers piled on her desk, there were many school papers lying disorganized on the polished wooden surface. She tapped her fingers and brought down the hand that she had been resting her chin on to stack the papers neatly, shove them into a folder and then into her bag. Her eyes caught on a letter that had been delivered to her that morning from Mr. Dickinson. She slit open the envelope and read over the lines of text as fast as she could.

Kai was outside the dojo training, as he always did, when the first snow flakes fell. He narrowed his eyes, taking the oculars off the spinning top to watch the sparse white pieces of frozen water fell to the ground and melt. He lifted his right hand, stretched the hand out and immediately closed it as the blade jumped into his hand. He put his closed fist into his pocket and looked up as the shuffling sound of feet caught his interest.

Standing there was Rei nearby the rest of the team. They were all looking at him curiously. His patience thinned after a few seconds, "What?"

"Well, Kai, we were wondering if you'd like to go somewhere with all of us and everyone else to celebrate the New Year."

"Everyone?"

"Yeah, sure. Mr. Dickinson said he'd cover the costs. He wants us to enjoy ourselves."

"No."

"Oh, come on, Kai." Tyson spoke up trying to convince him otherwise, "Seriously, all you do is train and school. I don't think you even sleep."

Kai tried using something he had been finding in short supply lately, patience. He managed to tune out Tyson's incessant talking for a minute as he considered, "Only if you leave me alone."

"Well then, it's decided. We're going to meet them on the bridge soon, so we should get going."

"Yeah!" Max said, excited.

When the arrived there, they noticed everyone else they were supposed to meet was there, minus three. Kenny looked around, He saw Daisy and Leo but not the other three BeyGirls and Mark. "Where are they?"

Daisy shrugged, tilting the red laptop she held under one of her arms as it threatened to fall out. "They had to do something important. They won't be coming."

Kai wished almost immediately that he had the same excuse and as the group walked along he remained probably three feet behind them, taking his time as he walked along. Rei had grouped up with the White Tigers and Salima, enjoying spending time with them as opposed to the rest of his team all the time.

Lily, Lea, Molly and Mark watched as the group walked away from the bridge and then stepped onto it themselves, looking down at the ice coated river. They wore light jackets to keep them warm from the cold and the snow. The other three looked over at Lily.

"Hey, Lil, what was that letter about?" Mark asked her.

"Mr. D just wanted us to look around. He's been getting reports from 'blading gyms everywhere of mysterious newcomers showing up and asking for our team. Then they challenge a lot of people and demolish their beyblades."

Mark looked offended at that, "Majorly not cool."

"What's more is that they parade about using old Fang aliases and ask about ol' Saber-tooth, Tiger-Claw, and Lion-Fang."

Lea looked up sharply at the second name, she brought her voice down to a bare whisper, "Lily, that team hasn't been around for ages, what would they want with them?"

"What is Fang?" Mark asked, totally ignorant to all the names Lily had listed.

Lily waved the boy closer, clearly as uncomfortable talking about that particular team as Lea was, "Well, it was a team that was founded probably five or six years ago and then disbanded after two years, after their leader at the time was caught by the cops."

Lea took up the story, "The members used names of animals that ended with claw or fang so no one would know who they were. They wore masks and robes and had things that manipulated their voices."

Molly continued after that, "Some members were people that had found out the real identities of other members and then were press-ganged into service for three years. None of them were real happy about what they were forced to do, but most members came freely and enjoyed what they did."

"Which was?"

"Robbing parts stores, destroying the blades of beginners and just in general being cruel. Before the group disbanded, they killed a person. They killed a lot more people, but no one ever found out about them. Fang is the most dangerous team that ever existed."

"Alright, so what would happen if someone refused to become a member after finding out about someone's identity?"

"An electrical shock that normally paralyzed someone for life, could kill, or wipe out their memories. The other option was taking a beating from several razor sharp beyblades that the team used, that was always fatal."

Mark took in all of the information and nodded his head, "Yeah, how come you all know so much about this Fang team?"

"We were members. It was only for a year. That was the time you were in Africa."

"Right." He grimaced, "So why were you three members?"

Molly looked over at her older brother, "Our other team mate at the time, Salima, had found out about one of the members, and their identity. She refused to become a member and was given the shock option. We were afraid of what would happen to her."

Lily sighed, "We made a bet. The three of us would battle their top three members and if we won two of the matches they'd let Salima go without a problem. If not, we would become members and they'd carry out their threat on Salima. We were the best in the World at the time, won the championship three times in a row. We all though we could win."

Lea shook her head, "We won once and lost twice." Lea looked up at Mark who was looking at them like they were new people, "We aren't really proud of what we did then, so we didn't ever tell Daisy about it and we made sure Salima was taken care of before taking care of our side of the bargain. You've got to understand, Mark, we never liked Fang, and still don't."

Lily stamped her foot to get feeling back in it, "Yeah, as soon as we could we told Mr. D about everything and set up the new leader to get caught."

"'New' leader?"

"Yeah, just before we carried out the one year service bet the leader changed. Mr. D is concerned that Fang might have reformed itself and wants us to look into it since we know so much about it." The group was huddled tightly and what they said could barely be heard, let alone understood. "We need to go, now."

The four walked off to do a small investigation of the town. Mark spoke up after several minutes of walking around town, "Uh, what you said, if they did reform, would I be in...?"

"No, bro, since we left it doesn't apply to us anymore."

Lea looked up and saw that he wasn't reassured, "Scared?" She taunted him and smirked at his nod, though she could barely blame him, "Look if even it did, you didn't find out what our names were."

They walked into various gyms that were noted in the letter Lily had been given. They asked descretly about the incidents.

By the time they reached a clearing by the middle of the afternoon the girls were looking around nervously, in case they were being watched. They decided to sit down in a clearing they came upon and take a break. Lily recognized the place as she looked around, "Higara Park." With memories of Fang freshly turned up in her mind something came back to her and the other two.

Lea's first statement as it came back fit quite perfectly, "Damn. I hate this place, let's get out of here." The other two nodded, and Lily spoke up as they left the clearing towards the exit gate.

"You know how me and Kai went missing earlier in the year? I was told to come to Higara Park. There was this kid that showed up with a Fang-styled beyblade. At that warehouse obstacle course..."

"The hundreds of blades." Molly said finishing the statement, Lily had told her about that the day after it happened. "Of course. That course is one of the..."

Lea said it once more, "Damn, I really hate this place."

"He also knew who I had been."

Lea stopped, "You didn't mention _that_ earlier. Let's just tell Mr. D, yes they're back or something like that, and get out of here, _now_."

Molly nodded nervously as they left the park and ran towards the BBA building. As soon as they were safely inside the heated building and were pulling off their jackets Mark posed another question, "So what was that course you and Kai went through?"

Lily shook her head, "Sorry, can't tell you that." She ran forwards towards the desk and asked the secretary to tell Mr. D that she wanted to see him and sat down in one of the chairs.

Lea tried to explain it to Mark, "The thing is, the more you know, the more danger you'll be in. So you'll need to live with the information that you have and don't ask questions or let on that you know anything at all. In case they did reform."

Mark nodded, he understood perfectly. He toyed with the dark red earring in the lobe of his left ear. He sighed, glad that they trusted him with this information, it was clear to him that they weren't comfortable talking about it, especially Lea. In a few minutes the secretary walked over to Lily, "He's read to see you now, Miss."

"Thanks." Lily nearly jumped out of her chair and ran over to stairs and took them two at a time and was panting a little by the time she reached Mr. Dickinson's office. She opened the door walked in and shut it behind her. The pleasant old man seated in a chair behind a large oak desk waved his hand to another chair.

"Please, take a seat, Lily."

Lily didn't take a seat but instead opted to pace the room nervously, "Mr. D, I looked around town like you asked me to."

"Oh, and what did you find?"

Lily plopped down into the chair and looked at her knees as she spoke, "Fang's back. Everything incident fits with Fang's past behavior. I think an old member that wasn't happy about Fang being disbanded decided to reform it."

"Oh dear. Are you sure?"

Lily nodded and looked up at the man, "Yes, absolutely."

"Alright, thank you, Lily. I know that was hard. Be careful."

"We will." Lily left the room, the clicking of the door as it shut seemed rather ominous, although Lily couldn't say why it did.


	8. Pranks

Well, stuff...look, an update! Uh...this is like in March...near the end of the Japanese school year.

**_Officiality Disclaimer-_** I do NOT own "School's Out" By Alice Cooper. That song belongs to Alice Cooper and everything related to her. I just wanted to use it in the story.

!-Chapter Eight-! Pranks

Lily placed something on her desk and muttered to herself, "Ah, the joys of being American." What she had placed on the surface of the desk was a CD player that she and Lea had been modifying for the past hour. Her purple-haired girl frowned to herself and picked up the device.

"You're saying a non-American can't enjoy this?"

Lily shook her head and rolled her eyes, "And knowing Americans," she pulled a CD off of the desk and handed it to Lea. "So, what are the odds of not being caught? And what do you think they'll do to us if we are caught?"

Lea shrugged, took the compact disk and placed it into the CD player. "If you could sneak around the Abbey for an hour, we won't get caught. Besides, this will test how good their English is..."

Lily nodded, conceding the point, "In the worst possible way, for them. This will be amusing for us though...and anyone who knows English."

Lea nodded sagely, "Yeah."

A week later, two days after graduation, Max was sitting in his chair, bored stiff. It was the last day of school, four minutes left until the end of the day. This was the last place he wanted to be at. The teacher was packing up his stuff at the podium in front of the classroom. Everyone was standing around talking to each other before the day let out. They were making arrangements for their break, places to go and things to do.

The in-school announcement system went on and everyone looked up at the speaker above their door. Instead of the principal, who they were expecting, a song started to play. The words were in English, and it sounded like American rock.

Max burst out into laughter the moment he recognized the song. A moment later Daisy broke up in hysterics. Tyson stared at Max then paused to listen to the words. He didn't understand why they were laughing at first, but soon he recognized some of the words as well and started to laugh. Kenny was snickering silently to himself. Hillary just stared at the four, just as confused as the rest of the class.

Throughout the entire building everyone who spoke English well was in some form of amusement. Molly and Salima held themselves up by their desks. Rei was laughing, leaning back into his chair. The White Tigers were staring at the speaker, but laughing as well. Ozuma and Merriam smiled at the song. In the first year wing only Joseph found the music amusing. In their homeroom Lily was chuckling, Mark and Lea were snickering and Kai was smiling.

The song they all had found so funny was an older American rock song called "School's Out." Lily and Lea weren't amused at the song as much as they were the fact that their plan had succeeded. They had been tired out how planned out everything was in the school, especially graduation, so they had decided to make things a little less formal with the song. When the song finished the bell for the end of the day rang and everyone rushed out of the school.

Although all the students took English, they hadn't understood most of the words in the song. The laughter had been infectious and made most people amused, however. Max was still grinning as he caught up with the others.

"The person who did that needs to be paid," he stated simply. When the group was far enough away from everyone else Lily and Lea looked at each other and grinned at Max.

"Okay, give us a dollar then."

The entire group stared at them, "You two did that?" Tyson asked incredulous. Kai and Mark weren't at all surprised, nor was anyone else on their team. Lily just nodded her head.

Molly grinned, "Ah, I was wonder what you were going to do. Very good."

Kenny looked at the two pranksters, "Wait, but why?"

Lily shrugged, "Because I'm American, Kenny. Lea and I always pull a prank at the end of the school year. No two have ever been the same."

Max snickered, "Well, then, I'll give you the money when I get it."

"Nah, keep it." Lily waved her hand as she stepped forward several yards, "Come on guys, we need to get going."

When the rest of her team followed her the others looked at them strangely. They just looked back at them.

"We're going on a vacation. We'll see you in a while."

Before they could say a word the BeyGirls ran off, Mark trailing after them. Shortly there after they reached the mansion they had been staying at for the past while.

The next day they had taken the first plane they could to Russia. Mark looked at Lea who was sitting right next to him after they were in the air.

"Could you explain to me what we're doing in Russia."

Lea looked at him and made her voice barely audible, "We're continuing our investigation of Fang. There's been a lot of activity in Russia."

"I see."

Over a week later, Daisy ran up to the dojo immediately after returning to Japan. Her eyes shone with worry. She ran up to her cousin. "Rei!"

The Chinese boy looked at her and furrowed his eyebrows. "What is it, Daisy?"

She stood quivering and panting for a long time. She seemed on the edge of tears, "It's my team...they've been kidnapped."

"What? Why?"

A few minutes later Tyson, Kenny, Kai, Rei, Max and Daisy were sitting in a circle in one of the training rooms.

"We were doing an investigation in Russia about a group called Fang...I don't know much about it, except they killed someone. But when we got to their base they knocked us out. When I came to there was a blindfold on me. Then I heard Lily saying "Okay" to someone. I didn't know what was going on. Two masked people pulled the blindfold off and brought me to a door. When I tried to look at everyone, even Mark, they looked away from me. When I was thrown outside, I didn't know what to do next, so I came back here."

Kai spoke, "I've heard more of Fang then you. It's not good if they're there." Everyone turned to look at the team captain. He just glared coolly at them and continued, "We should go there quick."

"But first I need to tell Mr. D about this."

Several days later the group stared up at a large building in the middle of nowhere. Tyson looked around nervously, "Is this the right place?"

"Yeah." Daisy said, nodding to herself."

* * *

Sorry for the shortness...but I'm afraid I don't want to write this story anymore...but never fear...I'll type up a summary thing for the next chapter so you won't be left like this... 


	9. Reports

!-Chapter Nine-! Reports

Lily sighed as she stared at a computer screen. It had the written report of what had happened after Daisy had been thrown out of the building. It had been several weeks since then, almost a month. Her muscles ached and her head hurt as she told the computer to print the document.

When the several papers had been ejected from the printer with ink on them she looked over the document one last time.

_Case File: Fang #14_

_Investigator: Lily Hirotome (ID #: 843)  
_

_Status: Closed_

_Summary: It started with Mr. Dickinson asking us to go to Russia as soon as school was out to continue the recently opened Fang investigation. He told us that there had been a high level of Fang activity in Russia near the capital. We left, Mark insisted on coming with us. I had my little brother sent home._

_When we arrived in Russia we were greeted by a short man, he seemed similar to Zylo, who I met earlier before the Fang case had reopened. He asked us why the BeyGirls were in Russia. We told him we were on vacation. He asked us to go to this castle in the middle of nowhere, there had been some gang activity, and they had stolen his most prized beyblade. In retrospect, I know now that he was working for them._

_After we had been knocked out, Molly, Mark, Lea and I woke in this large room. It was familiar to everyone but Mark. Daisy was no where in sight, and I had the distinctive feeling of déjà vu._

_A cloaked and masked man walked into the room and told us our situation. They were ready to stipulate terms of our surrender. I asked him where Daisy was, he said she was in the death chamber. I knew exactly what that entailed. So I asked him what his demands where._

_He said that he might think about letting Daisy go harm free if Lea, Molly, and I were to rejoin Fang for three years. I knew what was to happen if we didn't agree. I looked back and the other two nodded. I was about to say that we would join Fang when Mark interrupted. He said that he would join as well for three years, but only if he agreed that Daisy would not be harmed at all._

_After a moment's debate on a microphone that was in his mask he said he agreed, and asked if I did. I nodded my head and told him, "Okay." How couldn't I if it meant Daisy went unharmed. I didn't want the same to happen to her that had happened to Salima. When they brought Daisy out, none of us could look at her._

_After that were the initiation trails. I had to complete a beyblade obstacle course within five seconds on the first try. It's not as easy as it sounded, it was over ten yards long and had lots of traps. It took me a minute to think of a strategy. I finished that with a millisecond to spare. Molly had to run the obstacle course that Kai and I had been put through almost a year prior. Lea and Mark had to do something I'd rather not describe. I don't think Mark's stopped apologizing for it yet._

_A week afterwards we were told to greet some guests that wanted to see us. It took me a while, but I eventually figured out they meant the Blade Breakers. By greet they of course meant battle and beat so they would be forced into joining as well. It wouldn't be the whole team probably, just the people that lost. We were gathered in one room at the top of the building so we watched every battle on a large flat screen T.V._

_Mark faced Tyson first. Their battle dragged on for several minutes. It ended with Tyson summoning Dragoon and beating Mark. After that when Mark returned he was thrown in this small chamber. I could tell by how Mark had fought that he had thrown the match._

_The next up was Molly; she had to face Max. I could tell by how weak and halfhearted her attacks were that she really didn't want to win. She didn't either. Max beat her after ten minutes._

_Of course, throwing matches wasn't really accepted. There was a horrible price to pay. They had put these wristbands on us that would deliver an electric shock to us if we didn't fight to our fullest potential. It wouldn't be the king that could kill, it would shock and hurt. Molly was barely able to stumble back up. I could see that they could tell something was up, but none of them really knew._

_I talked to Lea during Molly's fight while our guards were distracted. I told her to throw the match she was going to have. She wrinkled her nose, it would be toughest for us to do that, but she nodded her head. I told her that I would throw my match as well. After my match I told her that I was going to use one of Dalila's attacks to start the building collapsing. She nodded her head to show me that she understood._

_Her match with Rei seemed to drag on forever. I could tell she was getting shocked a lot since she would freeze in motion for a second and they were pushing the button so often. She eventually lost to Rei. She nearly collapsed, but didn't. She said something to Rei that no one heard, not even our superiors. But his eyes went wide and he nodded. Then Lea returned. I think she told them who she was, we were masked, cloaked, and had voice filters to disguise us completely. I think maybe they thought that before that Fang had stolen our blades._

_After that it was my turn to fight Kai. The battle was agony, I had a really hard time fighting Kai. Eventually the people upstairs got tired with me prolonging the fight and sent the signal for the band to shock me. I really think that if they thought about it, it didn't help much. It became that much harder for me to focus on the fight. After I threw the match, which was more difficult then I had imagined it would be, I told Dalila to use her ultimate attack on the building. She complied. There were many explosions after that. I caught Dalila in my hand and after that I collapsed from pain and the agony of the shock device. Not only that, the band was equipped with spikes, which had embedded themselves into my skin after I commanded that attack._

_I was told what happened when I woke up in the hospital a week later. The body isn't designed to hold that much electric energy, so I wasn't surprised. Lea had fainted as well after going up the stairs and informing Molly and Mark about my plan. Mark had to carry her out._

When I had collapsed Kai had run over and pulled all the equipment off of me. Then he picked me up and carried me out. That's when the police showed up and had all the other people that had run out arrested.

Lily nodded to herself, that was all the report required. She folded it, put it in an envelope and put it in a mailbox. She didn't like to leave her apartment much anymore.

* * *

**Love is Only Human- Extra comments by the Author**

This is the end of this story. However, expect a one shot to follow this in a while...after school starts probably. I was going to write out all of the individual fights, but I found that I didn't want to. Really I wanted to get done with this.

Why? Well, as of right now, I'm a little tired of writing, but I had to get this project done before I gave up on it. I gave up after the first sentence in the first chapter, really. But I continued the story with a renewed interest after a while. This time I knew that there wouldn't be a renewal of interest, so I had to get this story done in the fastest way possible, which I did. However, there really isn't a sense of closure, so after a few weeks I'll type up the lost chapter to this story, the epilogue and either add it as a one shot or an epilogue to this story. I don't know which. Just look back at my page in about a month or two if you're interested. Don't really be counting on anything much...but maybe something will hit me.

Stuff...I feel carpal tunnel developing in my wrist so I leave you with this last statement. Don't ever expect me to write another BeyBlade fanfic ever, ever, ever again in my life. The third season killed my interest in the show, and the only possible ever continuation of my BeyBlade centered stories is that possible one shot lost chapter.

!-Digi-!


End file.
